Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about distractions that can keep you from achieving your goals with your reselling business.
Flip It For Christmas Challenge
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
Appliance Flipping Course: applianceflipping.com
Reseller Hangout Podcast - 5 Distractions That Can Sabotage Your Reselling Business
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are talking about these five distractions that can sabotage your business growth in reselling.
Rob: Okay. These five distractions can totally sabotage your growth in the reselling business.
So what are they?
Melissa: We're gonna dive into these five things that hopefully you can help avoid so you can keep growing your business.
So the first one is one that you've dealt with a lot.
Rob: I have.
Melissa: Shiny object syndrome and we've been listening to Hormozi talk about this a lot lately too. Yeah, so it is, you're probably an entrepreneur or have like lean towards that if you're looking into reselling or you're a reseller, so typically entrepreneurs have the tendency to have shiny objects and.
Rob: And no follow through.
So, but that is huge guys. You might have ideas all the time about these different things that you can start these different businesses. Guys, I am the king of starting different businesses up, but I am failing miserably at following through. I teamed up with my wonderful wife and she has kept me on track with this business.
So we have been able to see insane growth throughout our marriage, throughout the, the time that we've put full time into this business. So you guys might have those shiny object syndromes, that pull you away from what you really need to be doing. And Hormozi, Alex Hormozi, if you guys don't know him, amazing, amazing guy.
Melissa: We listen to his podcast.
Rob: Talks about anything that you consistently do and you really do it no matter what through time, you will see some success, some really good success. Because you have to be invested into it and keep doing it over and over and over, to get the success.
Melissa: So just for some examples of stuff that you've done, because you really have done a ton, you started a landscape business.
You started a roofing, or you wanted to, I think you went to school for roofing. Yep. For roofing. You did, we wanted to do boat tours. I remember at one point we got some pontoon boats. We were gonna give lake tours of to all the people's houses. You're a painter, got into advertising balloons, and then you wanted to do parasailing.
Rob: Parasailing.
Melissa: Parasailing business.
But that one failed because you got knocked out by okay, so we bought a parasail from the flea market.
Rob: A yard sale.
Melissa: A yard sale, okay. That's the first problem right there. And he went, how old were you when you did this?
Rob: It had to have been about 19 or 20.
Melissa: He went up on it with his buddies.
Thank goodness you were wearing a life vest because you ended up going up backwards. Yeah. And the thing hit you in the head. It popped off, right?
Rob: It did. The snap on the boat popped off, so it didn't come with a rope. We had to go buy a rope from Home Depot. This is like 500 foot of rope, and we had to put our own clasps on each end.
So one that went to the boat, one that went to the parasail, and one the clasps that was on the boat popped off when I don't know what it was. I was all the way up in the air backwards.
Melissa: You were backwards, right?
Rob: Yeah, because I didn't know parasails have a front and a back. I was strapped into it backwards, went up in the air, backwards.
A gust of wind came as I was getting ready to go up and flipped the thing over, and then I'm riding backwards. Thank the Lord I was riding backwards because the snap came off, the boat popped up and hit me in the back of the head, put a big old gash in the back of my head, knocked me out. I went down into the water and had my life jacket on.
They picked me up and got me into the boat and all that kind of stuff. So parasailing was out, but it was a great idea. So that is another shiny object syndrome that I had. , but guys, I've had hundreds. I, I, you know, I've had tons and tons of ideas for different ideas. I mean different things to, to follow through, to follow through.
And Alex Hormozi. Melissa and I really look up to this guy. He's amazing. Amazing.
Melissa: One of the things he was saying too, is, having so many different side hustles too. Like he'll meet somebody and they have like 10 different side hustles. And obviously reselling is our favorite side hustle, so we're a little partial.
But it is like if you, if it's one of your 10 or 15 things you're doing, maybe that's a reason why it's not as successful as it could be because you are invested in so many other things. And if you wanna dive deeper into it, maybe it's time to cut out some of the other things.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: And really dive and focus on it. Cuz you can, like, if you devote more time to it, you're gonna get better at it. So.
Rob: Absolutely. And the time, even just for what Melissa and I have done for the last seven years that we jumped full time into flipping and coaching with what we do, guys, we've had insane results. We've really been able to hone in on what our market is, for flipping items, the higher profit items, and we've got insane results.
I mean, just while we're recording this the last two months, 7,000 or $7,500 flip, two months ago, a $10,000 flip. These are single items, so almost $20,000 and we've made other little flips in with that for probably over $20,000 in the last two months. But single items for $10,000 and $7,500, that we've flipped.
Just think about. Man, and it, the time spent on that versus all the time wasted doing something else because we've really, really honed in and got really, really good at this flipping business.
Melissa: And it's not all that, It's always gonna just be success, success like it is. That was one thing we were listening to today too, is you know, you have success and then you have a failure, but you, those failures, you turn into learning things.
Yeah. So you learn something because of the failure and then you can have more success. So it's, it's always looking at it with that light versus like, oh, well it's not just this scale up. It's okay. A failure learn. It's a learning opportunity, and then you can grow from that. Absolutely. So it's always like an up and down, but you're constantly moving forward.
Rob: And you're in the same path.
You're doing the same thing, not a failure here. Well, let's go do something else. Right? So you gotta keep the failures in that, that process, in that business, so you can get better and better at that business versus a failure. Okay, this is the dead end, let's go try something else.
Melissa: That's what you would do all the time.
Yeah. Something you'd hit a road, road bump and then you're like, okay, well this won't work. So we're out , I'm out.
Rob: This is gonna work better. I know this is gonna work better. Let me go to a whole other industry. And it's not the case. You just need to really keep growing and be consistent in what you're doing.
Melissa: So the second one, second distraction. This one doesn't really affect you. It affects me more, social media. So it is definitely a distraction. I use it as research. I'm doing research on what kind of videos we need to make for , the marketing part or the content part of our business. And yeah, then I get sucked down the rabbit hole of social media and I can just waste, it's just a time waster. Like why, why am I doing that? So it doesn't really, you get more distract distracted on Facebook Marketplace maybe, or like.
Rob: No, that's more working.
Melissa: Working. There you go.
Rob: But I'm not looking at posts and stuff like that, so, and some people are gonna be more, they'll relate more to this and some people won't, some people don't get into the the whole TikTok and Facebook and Instagram and all that kind of stuff, so they don't jump in and it's not a big distraction to 'em. But just, yeah, take a mental evaluation of it. If this is one of the things that is holding you back from time and effort you can spend into getting better and better at your, your core business that you're really working on.
Melissa: Getting your stuff listed.
That could be the time was and your should be listing stuff instead.
Rob: Cleaning stuff, picturing stuff, more time that you can do on something else versus getting inside. I now, I'll be honest with you guys, I've got on TikTok before and believe it or not, like an hour's gone by and I'm like, whoa where did that hour just go?
Just scrolling through and look at videos.
Melissa: I've got a lot smarter.
Rob: And that's where I'm like, okay, this not gonna do me any good whatsoever. I don't need to be on these platforms doing this. I could have done so much better with the last hour I spent scrolling through this stuff. So that's my biggest thing is I've done it probably once or twice and then I'm like, okay, that's it.
I can't do this anymore. I, I got better stuff to do.
Melissa: So one of the distractions for you though, this is our third one is, television more is, is more of a distraction for you. That one doesn't bother me that much. I can like, it doesn't you like to watch at night and unplug and I don't know. It doesn't bother me so much.
Rob: No, and I mean, entrepreneurs, you guys work. We work, we work a lot and it's like, it never, It's not like a nine to five job. Hey, it's all the nine o'clock. I'm working five o'clock. Hey, go hang up that hat. Let's have some fun. The day's over, I mean, Melissa and I are working all the time and that is one of the ways that I unplug and I get convicted from time to time's with it though.
Melissa: There's nothing wrong with it.
Rob: There's not, there's not.
Melissa: You can enjoy that. Yeah. But if, you know, like there's, you want to be doing something times in your business for growth, you know, you wanna grow and you're not because you, you might give it up. Yeah. So it might be a barrier.
Rob: We've done that. We've done that.
Yeah. Through our business growth, we've done that. We've given up the TV to where I'm not watching movies at night, I'm trying to accomplish other stuff. And it really is, I mean, we're working sun up to sun down in this business to, whether it's flipping, whether it's coaching, whether it's social media, all the stuff that we do, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.
But in some cases.
Melissa: They'll be seasons where you do more or seasons where you not as much. Yeah. It kinda depends where you're at in your business. And that is just, you find that chunk of time is where you could, okay, well, instead of doing that, maybe for an hour I'm gonna work on my listings, or I'm gonna do that instead of, you know, sitting down and watching it and then maybe doing that later.
Rob: And there's a time and a season for it. Like I said, it's not always a, TV's not the worst thing ever. That's how I unplug is watching a movie at night. That's how I unplug before I go to bed, but in some cases I want growth more in the business than I want to relax and watch tv. So I'll give it up and I'll do stuff.
And that's one of those things that you have to make that decision for yourself if it is something that can get you more results in your business, for sure.
Melissa: Another one. Oh yeah, number four. Yeah is really your energy. So it's not, I guess necessarily a distraction, but more, you don't have enough energy to do the thing you need to do in your business.
And that can be a couple different reasons. Like maybe we're up too late watching TV or scrolling social media and, you know, playing on your phone before bed and so you're not getting the good quality sleep, or maybe you need to move more. Like that is something that, we value a lot, is we walk and we run four days a week and we walk almost every day. Because it, I don't know, it just starts off our day so much better and just gets us energized and ready to tackle the day. So, so sometimes it might be we just going for a walk. And I like to do that at the end of the day too. We used to do that a lot more at the end of the day.
Rob: We did. Yeah.
Melissa: Now it starts so early.
Rob: Yeah. Our schedule's different right now. Yeah. But we still get one out. We'll get a walk and a run in the morning typically, yeah, like Melissa said, four days a week.
Melissa: And, but that can, that can really energize you. It can get you going, it can get you motivated sometimes, you know, just moving more just brings the motivation and, and especially if you listen to a cool podcast, maybe like this one while you're going for a walk.
But yeah, moving more and, and trying to better sleep.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: The sleep part is hard for me. I will say that is my, definitely my hardest part. I, yeah, it's hard to turn off everything and.
Rob: But you need that sleep. You do. You need that sleep to reenergize to get your mind right. So you really do need to sleep, you need to make sure that you're getting plenty of sleep, for sure.
Melissa: So, all right, number five. So this one can be a touchy one. But it's people. So making sure that you have the people, like you're not getting distracted. Yeah. By people. So, and it can be friends and family, and, you know.
Rob: Might be a family member, it might be a friend. I know I have people in my life.
I'm a phone guy. I don't do a lot of texting. I'm not a big texter. Melissa's a texter. She doesn't get on the phone. But I have some friends that I will get on the phone with and I will talk to them for 30, 45 minutes.
Melissa: And he cannot multitask talking on the phone. Sometimes I'm like, we have to go somewhere. Can you just even get in the car?
Like we gotta go. So.
Rob: And it's one of those things that I know that that takes time away from what I can do. So maybe you're the same as me and you'll spend some time on a phone, a phone call. Not saying that you don't need those, those relationships. But I know a couple of the relationships that I.
They're not suiting me. I, they're definitely not suiting the growth in my business now. I'm very much in invested into friendships and doing stuff with people and, and just being a good friend, I'm definitely into that. Yes. But some of the people that I talk to on the phone, I'll talk to 'em for like 45 minutes and it is just, was just a total waste of my time to do that.
Melissa: It's kinda harsh to say it is. I know. But yeah.
Rob: It, it, it's one of those things that you have to just really evaluate. Your time that you're spending, that you could be on working on something else. Because I'm the kind of person too, when somebody calls me up, I stop everything, pick up the phone, and I'll talk to 'em in case they need something immediately.
I'll, I'll drop stuff and go help people out immediately. Some of my close friends, and it's one of those things that you have to really evaluate that. And maybe set some, some guidelines on, okay, well this person I know when they're calling, they're just calling to shoot the breeze and talk to 'em for 30 minutes.
I'm not gonna do that until maybe after five or six o'clock at night to where I'm not.
Melissa: It's not getting into your day.
Rob: Exactly the busyness of the day. So, this is a good reflection back onto your life and just take, take survey of, of what those calls are if you're a phone person, or even stopping and seeing somebody, somebody pulls you outta your normal routine and you see them personally.
Melissa: Well also it goes into being like, who are you surrounding yourself with as far as like positive and negative people. Like true. You know, we, we value friendships, we value people a lot, but sometimes being around certain people can just like, just demotivate you. Yeah. And just be negative and draining and then it doesn't help you in your business at all help you to grow because they just are constantly, maybe they complain a lot, maybe, and you're not saying cut people out of your life.
Rob: Absolutely not.
Melissa: Like, but you might just have to evaluate how much time you're spending around them or on the phone with them or whatever it is. So yeah.
Rob: So it's one thing if you are around people that complain a lot, you'll find yourself complaining. It's one of those things. JD does this really well. He, he talk and I don't know, he's probably not the original one who said it, but you are the average of the five most people that you spend time. with. Who are those five people? Are those complainers? Are they people, you know what I mean? Are just take survey of those people who really have influence on your life that you might not even realize it. Are those the people you want to get better that, that you can, you can grow with?
Are they people that are complaining about their situation and they're not doing anything to fix it?
Melissa: Are they motivating you to get stuff done, to grow yourself and grow your business? And, yeah. So just kinda evaluate that cuz that can be a, it can be hard. It can. It definitely could be a distraction too, for sure.
So, so yeah, we like to stay positive around here and we do, we, you know, we love people pretty good. Yep.
Rob: So, those are the five tips guys.